Town Square

Fast-food workers "strike"

Original post made
by Joe, Another Pleasanton neighborhood,
on Dec 7, 2013

This week, fast-food workers in 100 cities nationwide participated in a one-day "strike" to show support for their demand of a doubling of wages. The organizers of the rallies are groups like Fast Food Forward and Fight for 15. Funding for these groups is provided by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Striking workers were paid $50 each to skip a day's work and participate in the rally. Since the SEIU is funded by union dues, workers nationwide are effectively subsidizing their own "strike" (hence the quotes).

In NYC, San Francisco, and Oakland, participation was fairly small, in the 100-200 range. In NYC, only one-third of the 150 participants were actual fast-food workers; the remainder were organizers and supporters. This means that only 0.1% (one-tenth of one percent) of Manhattan's 57,000 fast-food workers were there on the street.

As so often happens, the strike may cause more problems down the road for the unions. In Europe, more and more fast-food establishments including McDonald's are moving toward the self-serve kiosk model for ordering. This hasn't taken root here in the US, but it could, soon.

The SEIU and other unions would do better to spend their efforts and members' dollars on methods to match unemployed and underemployed workers with entry-level jobs that have prospects for longer-term growth.

Posted by Union death
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Dec 7, 2013 at 6:30 pm

If union workers were only smart enough to see their 'leadership' is leading them down a path to slaughter. Look at Detroit....years of union bosses paying off politicians to approve unrealistic sweetheart pension deals that will now be either renegotiated or forfeited. It's a lie to claim that union drones didn't know that the payoffs they thought they were going to receive we're not sustainable. It's finally caught up to them and now the whining begins....it's not 'fair'. Lol.

Fast food workers are just another type of pawn the union thugs are attempting to control. It's sad that they treat people so poorly just to empower the 'brotherhood' (emphasis on the hood)

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